Battle for Earth
by gasgiant405
Summary: Ch. 2 now up. Grand Admiral Thrawn survived the battle of Bilbringi, though not unwounded, it is 5 years after the Hand of Thrawn duology, and Thrawn is looking for troops for his ultimate revenge against the New Republic. AU.
1. Thrawn

**Battle for Earth**

**Chapter 1**

The Imperial Star Destroyer _Chimaera_ floated through space, it's impressive weaponry was deactivated. There was no longer any need for it. With the peace accords signed with the New Republic, the need for such weapons was all but gone.

Admiral Pellaeon, second in command of the Imperial fleet, looked out into space, trying to hide his nervousness.

"Calm yourself, admiral, the report shall arrive in another 10 minutes"

Pellaeon turned to the speaker; a being that had come so close to defeating the New Republic, but had been stopped. _But not by the rebels_, Pelleaon thought, and that one thought was enough to make his stomach churn with anger, an anger that had been with him for 15 years.

It hadn't been the rebels who had stopped the speaker, but a traitorous bodyguard, by the name of Rukh. Pelleaon remembered that day well, at the shipyards of Bilbringi. Rukh had first disabled him, Pelleaon remembered, and then went after the speaker, Grand Admiral Thrawn, perhaps the greatest military mind the galaxy had ever seen.

The only bright side, Pelleaon grimaced, was that Rukh had stumbled as he had gone to stab the Grand Admiral. The knife had still connected, however, in the stomach, and not the heart, which had been, at least Pelleaon believed, Rukh's intent. Before Rukh could rectify his mistake, a security guard had shot down the traitorous Noghri.

The initial belief was that Thrawn would be fine in a matter of days. A knife wound, though certainly serious, should have been easy to treat. However, the Noghri had coated the knife with something. _A back- up plan_, the admiral realized. Whatever the knife had been coated with, it had been enough to send Thrawn into a coma for the better part of 15 years.

Then, just a year- and- a- half prior, Thrawn had reawaken. By then, though, the Empire's fate had been sealed. The then Supreme Commander of Imperial forces, Admiral Pelleaon, had signed a peace accord with the New Republic, 3-plus years before Thrawn had reawaken.

When Thrawn had reawaken, he had been disappointed to here the news that the Empire had been defeated. However, he did not blame Pelleaon, not in the least. The people Thrawn did blame, apart from the New Republic, and the smuggler Talon Karrde, were Pelleaon's predecessors, people like Admiral Daala, who had sought to use the Empire more for revenge, and for personal gain.

Thrawn, having been defeated, turned his eyes away from the New Republic, and towards another target. His next target would not be easy to even reach, much less conquer. Thrawn had decided to try and accomplish something that he himself had almost personally stopped many decades ago, the Outbound Flight project.

Thrawn had set his engineers a task, a very hard task at that. He had told them to improve the hyper drive engine. Thrawn was after a hyper drive that could get his Star Destroyers, and other ships, to another galaxy, in an amount of time short enough that the ship's crews would all survive, and still be able to fight, if need be.

The engineers' report on their accomplishments, or lack thereof, was due at any moment.

"The engineers' report has come in, admiral, please join me in my private chambers."

Pelleaon followed Thrawn into Thrawn's chambers, a place that Pelleaon remembered quite vividly from Thrawn's campaign against the New Republic 15 years ago. However, instead of being filled with holograms of an alien species' art, it had a hologram of what was obviously an engine, but it was an engine that Pelleaon had never seen before. He could only assume that it was the Grand Admiral's newer and better hyper drive.

"Well, admiral, do you like it?" asked Thrawn, his red eyes glowing with a hint of victory in them.

"I… I wish I could say sir, I really don't know what it does, I have a rough idea, but the specifics…."

"This, admiral, is our newest hyper drive, named the Inter-Galactic Hopper, or IGH by its creators. If the engineers' claims are true, we should be able to make a jump through space, into another galaxy entirely, in the relatively short time of only 3 years."

"With this new tool, we will leave this rebel controlled galaxy, and into another, looking for troops, since our Mount Tantiss cloning operation has long since been silenced, and any forced conscription would send shock waves all the way to Coruscant, which in turn would lead to an investigation on our activities, something that I want us to fully avoid." Thrawn said, with a hard look in his Chiss eyes.

"Why would we want troops?" asked the only slightly bewildered admiral, for he thought he might know what was coming next.

"For the only reason we could possibly need them. For the destruction of the rebellion, and the return of the Emperor's New Order."


	2. Karrde

2. Karrde

The ex-smuggler and information broker, Talon Karrde, was not a happy man, not happy at all. Several of his spies aboard the Imperial Star Destroyer _Chimaera_ had been out of touch for quite a long time, far longer than was usual. This could only mean trouble. Trouble for him, trouble for his organization, and trouble for the New Republic. Karrde had entrusted the job of spying on the Imperials to his best men—in other words, men who wouldn't forget to check in.

The only explanation that Karrde could find for his spies' disappearance was that they had been captured by the Imperials, and then presumably interrogated and executed. It was this explanation that unsettled Karrde. The last he had known, Pellaeon hadn't suspected a thing, and Karrde knew that none of his men would deliberately give himself up unless he was forced to. These two facts spoke volumes to Karrde. It was certainly _possible_ that Pellaeon had wizened up, but Karrde didn't think so. The only other possibility was that Pellaeon had been replaced, replaced by someone who was much more observant than Pellaeon ever was.

When Karrde had last checked, he hadn't known of any Imperial personnel that had the brains to catch one of his spies red-handed. This spooked Karrde, spooked him to the very center of his being. The last Imperial military officer that would have had the brain-power and ability to reason necessary to weed out one of his spies was the late Grand Admiral Thrawn

But Thrawn was dead, and everybody knew it, he had died at Bilbringi. Thrawn's back-up plan, a clone concealed way off on a distant planet, had also been destroyed. So there was no possible way for Thrawn to be back in charge; the very notion was completely and utterly impossible.

Karrde shook these thoughts away and returned to the matter at hand, his missing spies. He had to get into contact with the New Republic as soon as he could, so that he could break the news…. He sighed. This wasn't going to end well, he could feel it. His thoughts were interrupted by a beep from his comlink.

"Karrde here," he said wearily, his mind still elsewhere

The voice at the other end of the connection took an audible breath. "Chief, we got a message from our group on Coruscant…Bad news, the Imperials have cut contact with them, no apparent reason for it either."

Karrde was quite tempted to reach through the comlink and strangle the unfortunate man at the other end of the transmission. The last thing he wanted to hear at that point in time was bad news, especially bad news of this magnitude. Still, he had to be civil; he didn't want to show that anything was seriously wrong…yet.

What he needed was time, and time was something that he knew was going to be in short supply in the coming days.

He sighed. "Very well, I'll see what I can find out."

"Anything else, Chief?" Relief was audible in the young man's voice.

"N—Yes. I'm not to be disturbed for the remainder of the day—no interruptions unless all hell breaks loose outside of the ship."

"You got it Chief, talk to you in five minutes."

Karrde rolled his eyes, and terminated the connection, making a mental note to ask Dankin to reintroduce the section on respect into the training program.

-------------

Karrde awoke the next day feeling just as he had the day before, as if the universe were about to collapse all around him. He hadn't contacted the New Republic yet; he wasn't quite sure why either. He had a lot to share, and he wasn't uncomfortable with the liaison between the New Republic and his organization.

To the contrary, he knew her quite well; she had shown considerable potential as an information broker and smuggler. She had been his second in command during the first and second Thrawn crises; she was quite the woman, Mara Jade.

Finally, Karrde could put it off no longer. He typed in his most secure encrypt, and patched a call through to Coruscant. Mara's image appeared almost immediately.

"Hello, Karrde, I thought you might be calling sometime soon," Mara said with a grin.

Karrde raised an eyebrow, "Must be one of those vaunted Jedi talents."

Mara laughed at the long-standing joke between her and Karrde, and responded as Karrde knew she would. "Not quite. If I know you, you somehow managed to discover something that you should have no way of knowing. Not that it would be the first time..."

Karrde gave a small chuckle. "Only partially right, Mara. Indeed, I do have information that certain individuals might not like that I have, but the reason I'm calling is because I have some information of my own that spells trouble, in rancor sized letters."

It was Mara's turn to raise an eyebrow. "That serious, huh?"

"Indeed, I'd rather not discuss this right now. This encrypt is one of the best in the galaxy, but I'm not willing to take any chances with this. Is there any place we could meet in private?"

There was a pause, as Mara gave the question consideration. "Do you remember Lt. Kosk?" she asked.

Karrde had to think for a minute; the name did seem familiar…"Yes, Mara, I do… what about him?"

"Do you remember where you and him had that…erm...conversation about fifteen years ago?"

Karrde gave a small smile: indeed, he did remember. "Vividly, Mara. When would it be convenient for you?"

Mara's response came with an impression of a chuckle. "Say, in…eight days?"

Karrde chuckled; the sense of dèjá vu was too much for him. "Fine with me, see you in eight."

"Take care, Karrde."

--------------

True to his word, Karrde was at the Whistler's Whirlpool eight days later. He looked around; if the place had been decaying fifteen years ago, its condition now made the Whistler's Whirlpool of fifteen years ago look brand new. Karrde turned, as he heard a voice call out.

"So… I see the great Talon Karrde still can't tell time. How long have you been here?"

Karrde gave one of his trademark sardonic grins. "Only two or three hours, nothing too long."

Mara sighed audibly. "Some things never change. I guess this is one of them."

Karrde shrugged. "One can never be too careful."

Mara decided to break the ice. "So Karrde, what do you have that is so important that it can't be told over the most secure encrypt I've ever seen?"

Karrde launched into his story. "Well, I'm sure you know, but in case you don't, I placed spies aboard the _Chimaera_ shortly after the peace treaty was signed. They were some of my best people, and now they've disappeared, and I have no idea how an Imperial could have discovered my spies. The last Imperial that would have been able to find my spies was Grand Admiral Thrawn."

Mara sat through Karrde's story, thinking the whole time. She had long suspected that Karrde had planted spies amongst the Imperials, at least that was now confirmed. But the rest…was unsettling, to say the least.

"What of the _Chimaera_ itself?" she asked. "Is it out of range, or do we know where it is?"

Karrde rubbed the bridge of his nose. "We know exactly where the _Chimaera_ is, which makes this whole situation that much more unsettling. If the _Chimaera_ was simply out of range, I wouldn't be this worried; it would be probable that my spies simply couldn't transmit messages that far. However, because the _Chimaera_ is in plain view… I fear the worst."

"I'll ask around, Karrde, and I'll try and keep it close to home."

Karrde grinned weakly. "Thanks, Mara, I appreciate it."

"Anytime, Karrde…now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get back, or else Coruscant is going to be wondering where I went, and, more importantly, why."

"Wouldn't want to raise suspicions, now, would we?" asked Karrde, one eyebrow raised.

"Indeed."

The two went their separate ways, each deep in thought.

-------------

Karrde's thoughts were interrupted almost as soon as he stepped foot on the _Wild Karrde_, by none other than the same man who Karrde had spoken to earlier, via comlink.

"Chief, we have trouble!"

Karrde rubbed the bridge of his nose again. _How could things get __any__ worse?_

He sighed. "Alright, let's have it."

"Sir… the _Chimaera_. It's gone."

Karrde frowned. "What do you mean 'gone'? Did it jump into hyperspace, did it cloak, what happened, how we know this?"

"Well sir, we kind of found out by accident. An unknown smuggler happened to drop out of hyperspace at the _Chimaera's_ location, just as the _Chimaera_ disappeared. The smuggler described the Start Destroyer as going into hyperspace, but—"

"But what?"

"Sir, the smuggler scanned the _Chimaera_'s hyperdrive, right before it disappeared, and from the specs that we managed to get, the _Chimaera_ was capable of intergalactic travel."

Karrde frowned, puzzled. "Did we get a vector?"

"Yes, we did, but its unlike anything I've ever seen before. Wherever they're going, it's not in this galaxy."

Karrde made a snap decision. "Alright, thanks for the information. Make sure you tell the rest of the crew nothing, we don't want to start a riot. I need some time to think."

Karrde sat in his private quarters, contemplating the situation, and finally decided upon a course of action. "Chin, set course for Tatooine, we're going to have a talk with the Junker."

_AN: Thanks to anybody and everybody who reviewed the first chapter. Special thanks to my wonderful betas, RoseWren and Aran'sApprentice-Meahow, who's input was invaluable, especially when it came to my atrocious grammar. I urge anybody that's looking for a good story to check out their stuff, top notch, it really is. _


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